Mo Gawdat is the Chief Business Officer for X, previously Google X, and author of “Solve For Happy.” Mo has an impressive combined career of 23 years, starting at IBMEgypt as a Systems Engineer before moving to a sales role in the government sector. Venturing in to the UAE, Mo joined NCR Abu Dhabi to cover the non-finance sector. He also became acquainted with the consumer goods industry as Regional Manager of BAT. He then assumed various roles at Microsoft over a span of seven and a half years, in his last role at Microsoft he headed the Communications Sector across Emerging Markets worldwide.
Mo joined Google in 2007 managing its business in over 50 countries and focusing on Emerging Markets. He continues to focus on his biggest passion; Emerging Markets and the vast degree of diversity and challenges they face. He is fascinated by the role that technology plays in empowering people in these communities and has dedicated his career towards that passion. Over the years, Mo has started close to half of Google’s operations worldwide.
As Vice President of Business Innovation at Google X, he worked on Project Loon, which aims to use high-altitude balloons to provide affordable internet access to the 5 billion people. In 2015 he was named Chief Business Officer at Google X, where he works to land the moonshots they launch as real businesses in the real world and help customers and partners globally benefit from our breakthrough technology. Mo Gawdat is the author of “Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Uncovering the Joy Inside You” (2017). He created an algorithm for happiness, which proved highly effective. He and his family lived by it for a decade. In 2013, it was put to the ultimate test when Mo lost his son Ali. Mo’s mission now is to share these principles more widely and further the cause of happiness wherever he can. Mo is also a serial entrepreneur who has cofounded more than 15 businesses in his career.